Category Archive for 'Country Rock'

“These tracks feel much more like an album of alternate versions than a typical live recording. The intimacy and raw beauty of Live at the Cellar Door makes it not just a must for super fans, but a valuable companion piece to any of Young’s early studio output.” –All Music Guide Check Our Catalog

“Someone lit a fire under Band of Horses’ porch. The quintet usually specialize in beard-y reverie, somewhere between Built to Spill’s guitar majesty and Seventies AM folk of America. But the Horses rough things up on Mirage Rock, from the ‘Brown Sugar’ bounce of ‘Electric Music’ to the crackling ‘Knock Knock,’ where Ben Bridwell sings [...]

“[T]his is steeped in the thick twang that’s been at the heart of Yoakam’s music since the start, but he’s attempting more sounds and styles here…This is an album where one song in no way predicts what comes next…Yoakam has surprised by digging deeper into every one of his obsessions, creating a record that captures [...]

“Ashes & Fire is as close as it gets to the brilliance of his first post-Whiskeytown offering, Heartbreaker. It’s a subdued affair, rarely breaking much more than an acoustic guitar– and light-piano sweat, except on the honky-tonk jangle of the title track.” –The Boston Phoenix Check Our Catalog

“Eleven Eleven…reaffirms [Alvin's] status as one of the best and most distinctive American songwriters alive. There are few artists who can match Alvin’s gift for creating vivid characters and bringing their lives to life through music, and Eleven Eleven finds him near the top of his game as a tunesmith, while also showing off his [...]

“Here We Rest may not be beer-drinking music, at least not in the same way the Drive-By Truckers albums are beer-drinking music, but it’s as sharply literate as some of Patterson Hood’s best work — and listeners who focus on Isbell’s lyrics may find themselves weeping into their whiskeys as early as the second track.”–All [...]

“The thirst for deep-rut Southern grooves is particularly insatiable this time out. Go-Go Boots is a “vibe” record for sure — you could call it Muscle Shoals derived, or the final realization of the country-soul sound the band have been flirting with for years, but to me it simply sounds lived in. From the snaking [...]

Check Our Catalog “Whether backed by simple guitar or a full-band ramble, Bingham’s intricately detailed portraits of the wayward and lost are some of the best short stories you’ll hear all year.” –Entertainment Weekly

Check Our Catalog “The 2009 Singles Collection offers something that the many other previous Creedence Clearwater Revival compilations do not: the band’s A-sides and B-sides presented complete and in chronological order, plus a DVD containing the five promo clips CCR released (“Sweet Hitch-Hiker,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Bootleg,” “I Put a Spell on [...]

Check Our Catalog “Midnight Souvenirs is a terrific dark-night-of-the-soul album, but it doesn’t mope. It’s made for driving, dancing alone in the living room, or merely pondering your next move, while snapping your fingers, of course.” –All Music Guide

Check Our Catalog “The Drive-By Truckers have been the best and smartest hard rock band in America for a while now, but with The Big To-Do they also confirm they’re one of the bravest, and they’ve created a triumphant album out of songs in which folks are forced to look failure square in the eye.” [...]

Check Our Catalog “Wilson claims this is the first female Southern rock album. She may be right. I Got Your Country Right Here proves two things: that it rocks nearly as hard as her live shows and that she is not an industry-constructed image — she’s exactly who she’s portrayed herself to be all along.”–All [...]

Check Our Catalog “This album doesn’t have the lingering country and reggae flavors that seasoned 2006’s Take the Weather with You, with all of the songs riding a cool, mellow country-rock wave, the kind that has been his stock-in-trade since the ‘70s…one of Jimmy’s strongest albums in recent memory.”–All Music Guide

Check Our Catalog “Give Shooter Jennings credit for this: he has the chutzpah to break with his country-rock roots on Black Ribbons, envisioning a Dystopian future on this vague concept album.”–All Music Guide

Check Our Catalog “Even though this 2009 release incorporates jazz elements on occasion (as well as elements of blues, soul, and country), Some Assembly Required is a roots rock/Americana effort first and foremost…This is a well-crafted, nicely executed disc that never fails to be enjoyable.”–All Music Guide

Check Our Catalog “Every one of these 15 tunes is a living, breathing creature, from the haunting, modal-tinged blues-waltz (with cello) of ‘Rake’ to the jaunty fingerpicking and mouthy dialogue of ‘Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold’ (a duet featuring son Justin Townes Earle) to the eternally elegant Tex-Mex anthem ‘Pancho and Lefty.’”–Billboard

Check Our Catalog “Electric Dirt sounds fresh, emphatic, and as effective as anything Levon has cut since the mid-’70s, and one can only hope he has a few more discs in him just this good.”–All Music Guide